Morgan Stanley's assets up 6% for quarter, 22% for year

Morgan Stanley Investment Management had $584 billion in assets under management or supervision as of March 31, up 6% from three months earlier and up 22% from a year earlier, according to parent Morgan Stanley's earnings statement released Thursday.

MSIM reported net inflows of $57.3 billion for the first quarter, compared with net inflows of $29.1 billion for the fourth quarter and net outflows of $6.2 billion in the first quarter of 2019.

The flows were driven by $50.6 billion in net inflows to liquidity strategies, $3.8 billion in inflows to alternatives, $1.6 billion in inflows to equities and $1.3 billion in inflows to fixed income.

Broken down by assets, MSIM managed $247 billion in liquidity assets as of March 31, up 26% from Dec. 31 and up 55% from March 31, 2019. Alternative investments totaled $141 billion as of March 31, up 1% from three months earlier and up 6% from 12 months earlier.

Equities reached $121 billion in assets as of March 31, down 12% from Dec. 31 but up 1% from March 31, 2019. Fixed-income strategies totaled $75 billion, down 5% from three months earlier but up 10% from a year earlier.

MSIM saw net revenue of $692 million in the most recent quarter, down 49% from the previous quarter and down 14% from the year-earlier quarter. The company attributed the lower investment revenues to a decline in global asset prices.

Net investment management income, meanwhile, was $78 million in the first quarter, down 75% compared with the fourth quarter and down 43% from the first quarter of 2019.